To ask why non-parents are here?

[hopityhopity]

I see posters saying they don't have any children, or want any. So if you aren't a parent, pregnant or TTC, why are you here on mumsnet?🤔

Do you ever have employment issues you need support with?
Do you ever have legal problems you need advice on?
Do you ever want a nice friendly chat if you're lonely?
Do you ever have a problem in a relationship you need to talk through?
Have you ever had a problem with your wrist doing downfacing dog?
Have you ever wanted to knee that bloke ploughing up and down the medium lane in Early Bird swimming?

Have you looked at the MN Chat list lately?

Even if you don't, there are a lot of people who do.

.... need support who don't have DC yet, or ever?

Top tip for joining an online forum OP.

Lurk a bit, read some threads, get to know the acronyms a bit if you can and get a "feel" for the place before you make the decision to post such an idiotic question on yet another tedious & pointless thread.

Mumsnet is easily found by googling questions related to all aspects of life really. I found it by looking for property advice. The name of the site isn't representative of the increase in topics and boards.

what bought people to a parenting forum 'Mumsnet for parents by parents'

Dammit, so some people were bought - I knew it!

I understand that not all topics are strictly about parenting or children but I do find sometimes when on a discussion about pregnancy or something about children that having someone come on giving advice who hasn’t had children or who isn’t pregnant can sometimes derail the discussion.

Very very occasionally there is the odd poster who makes their feelings known that just because they don’t have children doesn’t mean they don’t know what is going on with your Ds/Dd. Their opinions are as valid as the next persons.
When they clearly haven’t a clue.

What brought me here was a friend who is a parent telling me about all the non-parent-specific LOLs to be had.

I don’t think it’s “mumsnet, by parents for parents only “ is it?

I’m a parent but I don’t see why you got all narked and flounced when you posted on AIBU. U ok hun?

Also Op, your tone and the silly emoji didn’t help.

This.

Mumsnet is covers a whole broad spectrum of issues, particularly women's issues but not exclusively. There are some men who post too.

Plenty of the issues discussed are not unique to parents. Everyone is welcome and there is a section for most things.

Many internet forums allow discussion on topics far wider than their specific nominated subject matter. I used to regularly use a particular dog owners forum until it went to shit. We obviously did discuss dogs a lot, but not exclusively and did support each other in other areas of life too.

I love the diversity on here, it’s great that you can get opinions from child free women, men, single mothers, married mothers, 20 year olds through to 80 year olds, & everything in between!
It’s brilliant!

I googled a beauty product I was interested in, ended up on Style and Beauty, and never left. I mainly hang out there, occasionally the Litter Tray, and very occasionally click into trending threads like this one.

@hopityhopity
I don't see why some are getting so touchy about it.

because its fucking boring to read the same fucking thread again and again - maybe have a go at using the seatch function before you post?

MN isn't really a pure parenting and advice forum. It has so much more, feminism, politics, cooking, relationships. I do see MN very much as a women-centred space, more than a parent-centred one.

I haven't changed much since becoming a mother and if I have, then because of the passage of time as much as the start of motherhood. I am interested in much the same things I was before. Many MNers, myself included, seldom did use MN for advice on potty training or breastfeeding.

Should MN ever become a pure parenting-under-18s site it will be much smaller and less impactful. Kids are young but a short time, most of our lives we are not actively parenting. We do have relationships, experience sexism, engage in politics and cook for most of our 80 years, but only parent for perhaps a quarter of it.

I think Google brings a lot of them here.

I would like there to be more protection from mnhq on threads being picked up by non members and published, as well as being googled and clicked on by any randomer.

You'd almost think it was the only chat forum.
One place for mums, and like everything else when you're a Mum...you get invaded

@DarlingNikita 'What brought me here was a friend who is a parent telling me about all the non-parent-specific LOLs to be had.'

I didn't like to put it like that, but this!

I'm looking for stories I can sell to the Daily Mail :)

Interested, I mean that as a compliment! MN has some of the funniest stuff I read. It's a high calibre of poster, generally.
I do like the more serious stuff too, I hasten to add.

Oh huge apologies OP I wasn't aware that posters were required to have achieved partition before being allowed to contribute. Obviously people who don't have kids have no knowledge, interest or insight to offer. Maybe we should be banned, or I dunno, be made to wear a special yellow badge or something.

Looks like you’ve touched a raw nerve with a whole bunch of people

Have you looked through the site?
You don't need to have children to contribute to most of the threads, it's just that the parenting threads are usually more busy due to the nature of the site.

Why don't people just say what they are on here for or nothing at all?

I googled something and ended up here, I am a Mum and was long before I joined. I knew of mumsnet but didn't join because of the people like those that have replied that want to spread negativity. No one needs that.

It's a genuine question and maybe the OP wants to know what she's missing out on elsewhere.

Also not wrong to assume mumsnet is for mums, if it was called dadsnet or blokesnet you'd assume they were for a different audience too and they most likely would be. It's not called advicenet so why is it unusual to assume it's somewhere for mums?

I don't see why some are getting so touchy about it

OP, I came on this thread to say 'yeah, fuck off all of you' as a joke, because it sounded like someone belittling the non-parents for being on someone else's territory.

But from looking at the thread, I can see you were just genuinely curious about the answer.

This, by the way, is one of the reasons I suspect lots of people are here - for the bun fights. This is why stories often make the daily mail - because it's entertaining everyone has an opinion and people can engage with it.

I have children but have friends /relatives that are childless . We still have things in common . I like to think Mumsnet is full of new friends to talk to ! Its interesting and a lot of subjects are relevant .Who talks about their children all the time anyway? With RL friends we discuss Politics of the day ,Cost of living ,Holidays and so on a bit like Mumsnet!

I don’t have children but have been a long time lurker on mumsnet, enjoying the discussion on a variety of topics, not always child related.

I only joined recently because I had a question which involved my partners adult child.

I admitted and confessed to having no biological children of my own, but just asked for points of view, and was appreciative of replies. Many of which said it was perfectly fine for me to post even tho I was not a biological patent.

Would you like me to crawl back under my childless rock and not post again?

Most of you were perfectly lovely x